52 weeks = 1 year

Finally, the birthday pictures!

Grandma, Grandpa, Nonnie and Nonno all came into town for the big event on Friday, so we went out to dinner that night.

Zack was thrilled.

In all honesty, he was very good, especially since we were at the restaurant for about 2 hours.

We had to take a pooch picture on the big day, along with his new favorite giraffe. I'd say he's grown a bit.

He had an early morning jam session.

Of course there was cake.


It took him awhile to get into the cake (literally and figuratively)...





...but he got the hang of it.




He opened gifts...


...and took his new horse for a spin.


He needed a bath to get all that coconut cake out of his hair. He's stretched out a bit over the past year, wouldn't you say?


And on Sunday?

On Sunday we rested.


Thanks to Geoff for taking most, if not all, of the great shots of Zack with the cake and opening his gifts.

52 weeks

Hello!

A belated Happy Valentine's Day!


There will be birthday pictures soon, as soon as I talk the computer into letting me download the pictures. Suffice it to say that we had a lovely day and Zack is now wondering where all his adoring fans are. He's finding himself a bit bored when left only with Rob and I.

Week 51

Zack wanted thank you all for the concern and wants you to know that he's feeling much better now.

In fact, I think his appetite has returned 120%.

I've always known that there are innate behaviors and there are learned behaviors--that's pretty much what I've studied for the past number of years. What's interesting as a parent is coming to realize which behaviors are which. So the ability to let someone know that you're about to vomit and could use a receptacle into which to vomit?

Yeah, that would be totally learned.

And Zack hasn't learned it yet.

He is working very hard at learning to walk and talk, though. Every now and then when he's cruising he forgets what he's doing and lets go--then plops on the ground. One of these days he's not going to plop, or at least not so quickly.

I remember when I was little, it must have been before 2nd grade, when I knew what cursive writing was, didn't know how to write in cursive, but thought it was the coolest thing, so I'd "write" things. Things that in retrospect looked like lots and lots of cursive lower-case l's. I'm reminded of this because it seems as if that's what Zack is doing with words. He knows there's something in this language thing, thinks it's really cool, can't quite put it all together, but is trying with all his might to make it work. We often do a double take. He's imitating us more closely. I also think that he sometimes tries to say "woof" when he hears or sees dogs. It's a very soft "ffff" sound. He pretty consistently says "mamamamama" when he's upset and wants me, particularly if he's got to crawl after me. He says "da" when he looks at things. He also says "dadada" but that doesn't seem to be as specific (Rob may argue with me there.).

He's found the tupperware drawer and the pot lid drawer. I left before Rob and Zack this morning, but came home a bit later to work from home. I could tell where Zack had been as Rob was getting things ready to go--paper recycling all over the mudroom, tupperware on the kitchen floor, dish towels pulled off the oven handle, etc. etc. etc.

As always, he goes through the day happy and charming. He's looking forward to cake and fun next weekend!

Week 50

Zack started feeling under the weather last night. He had a fever and got cranky and a bit floppy. This is how he spent most of the Super Bowl.
At least we could put him to good use.

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He still had a fever this morning and was even floppier. He'd look at us like "I want to be my happy, cheerful self, but I seem to have been run over by a truck in the middle of the night. What gives?!"

He's staying home with Rob today, following doctor's orders. Hopefully the fever will break today and he'll be back to him self tomorrow.

49 weeks

Again with the work thing interfering with my blogging. Yeesh!

The beginning of this week involved much intricate planning and scheduling on Rob's and my part because of meetings and travel that we both had. We had it all figured out, plans in place, watches synchronized.

And then it snowed.

Luckily, the women at Rob's office LOVE Zack and were more than happy to watch him for a couple hours while Rob left for the airport and I finished up my meeting.

I think the ladies may have gotten a little carried a way.


And I'm quite certain this will be a picture he'll want to disown us for in about 12 years.

47 weeks

I haven't talked about the new stuff going on with our little guy for awhile.

He likes to explore...
...and doesn't hesitate to get himself where he'd like to go.

He's getting closer and closer to standing on his own. He'll do things with both hands while just leaning against something. And he's definitely cruising around the furniture and the backs of our legs more. He follows us around the house.

He's got quite the sense of humor and cracks himself up by playing peek-a-boo with us. He continues to be really good with people that he hasn't seen before and warms up to them quickly. Honestly, he doesn't seem to be afraid of much at all. He loved the dogs that he met while we were away for Christmas. He heads towards the vacuum cleaner when it's running. And he has yet to figure out that there is a substantial drop from the couch or the bed.

He continues to be a good eater.
And a ham.
Note that I say nothing about his table manners.

He continues to like most things and is getting more and more insistent on eating what we eat. All that curry I craved and ate while pregnant seems to have paid off since just this past week he ate and enjoyed both Thai and Indian curry with rice. He was also quite fond of the orzo with a simple pesto that I mixed up the other night. He is getting more insistent on doing it himself, so we alternate him feeding himself some banana with us feeding him something with a spoon. He goes crazy over yogurt and mooched some of my blood orange sorbet the other night. I hope he realizes that I wouldn't share that with just anyone--yummy!

He really likes daycare and regularly protests when I come to pick him up at night. I think that's a good sign.

Did I ever mention that he got two teeth? His two bottom teeth popped out on Christmas day. He's still drooling, so I think he's working on more.

Some more Christmas pictures

While I gave up trying to whittle down the Christmas pictures and just posted them all on Shutterfly (loyal readers should have gotten a link to those--if not, email me.), there are a few I just couldn't resist sharing.





Happy New Year!

46 weeks

I was going to wait to post until after I'd downloaded all of the pictures from Christmas, but between being sick and Rob taking the camera, that hasn't happened. So I'll just leave you with a medley of random shots from Christmas and the days after. It seems that most of the Christmas Day photos are on Rob's camera, so those will come later.

My Christmas elves.
Even elves get tired.
"Dad, have you seen how cool this ribbon is?"
Grandma and Grandpa.
These were taken the Saturday after New Year's, after a brunchy thing we had. Zack was worn out after his hosting and entertaining responsibilities of the afternoon and sacked out on Uncle Geoff.

It took him awhile to wake up.
Later that day, the boys decided to check out Rob's new toy--in the middle of the kitchen floor. At least they refrained from doing a test run, though that was suggested.

Happy New Year!

44 weeks: Christmas Eve Eve

"Dude!"

"You didn't tell me there'd be paper and boxes at Christmas!!! I'm so there! "

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Can't wait to see all of you in the next few days! And for those of you who we won't see for awhile, we miss you lots, wish you a very Merry Christmas, and hope to see you soon!

Week 43: How much do I love my son?

Obviously, I love him more than anything. But it's not just anyone I'll give a ball of yarn to and say "Have at it!". (Though I drew the line at the2500 yds of laceweight.)
It bought me about 45 minutes, time enough to finish his splat mat (polka dotted thing in the background) and mostly finish his Christmas stocking. And he was happy as a clam.

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In other news, we got ourselves some new carpet tile for Christmas. Here's the kitchen:
That little pile of carpet samples? That's Zack's. More on that later.

And here's the new room:
You can see the Christmas tree in the corner. Zack is sort of interested in it and goes over and bats branches every now and then.
"What?! I didn't do anything!"
But he got bored and turned to the pile of carpet samples, which, apparently, are infinitely more interesting.
He's teething up a storm. There are two bottom teeth just below the gum and he's been chewing on everything lately. And crawls around with stuff in his mouth. Like this:
We've told him that's the wrong end of the binky on a rope but he won't listen.

Some gratuitous nudity.
This one reminds me of that old Greek statue of the discus thrower.
And some pictures of the boy who won't sleep in his crib, but will sleep here...
...and here.

We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and we're looking forward to seeing you soon!

Week 42: Time is relative

Zack has been post-natal as long as he was pre-natal.

Which proves Einstein's theory of relativity because I know that I was pregnant forever, and that Zack was only born a few weeks ago.

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We have an Exersaucer in the kitchen, one of our containers for Zack when we need to do something and can't watch his every move. Normally, he sits in it. Yesterday I caught him crawling through it.
I suspect there's going to be a day we'll find him hanging from our track lighting.

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The other night I went upstairs and found this.
Zack has discovered how to flip the pages of books and is really quite pleased with the achievement.

"See? Like this, Dad."
"Isn't that the coolest?"
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He's working on teeth. We can feel and see them right below the gum. Any day now....

He's also started blowing--it's really pretty cute. Not on anything or for any reason other than he thinks it's neat.

This weekend we'll be getting our Christmas tree. We'll see how that goes. But all those ornaments of my Grandma's that she gave me last year? Yeah, those are staying in their boxes this year.

41 weeks

The clips are a little dark, but you can get an idea of what he's up to these days. Sometimes he works on his squatting.


Sometimes he does a little dance.



His crawling continues to improve. He's started exploring the house by himself, just heading down the hall or around the couch to see what's going on. We keep an eye on him, of course, but he's not afraid to check things out on his own.

Because of that, this was our latest purchase.
Lovely, huh? But at least we know where he is.

He's started doing this thing where he stands in front of me while I hold his hands and he leans in with an open mouth, like he's giving me kisses. It's the sweetest thing. I guess he can't help but copy what he experiences so often.

And the chatter! No full words yet--though he says "mmmmm" and "ymmmmm" when he eats--but it's not for lack of trying!~

He's got teeth right under the gum. We can feel them, and on the rare occasion that he lets us look, we can see them, too. Drooling has resumed in force. He doesn't seem too bothered by it, though he rubs his tongue over them a lot. Hopefully they'll pop out soon.

And he continues to help out in the kitchen.

"Mom! I told you--not so much oregano"
Actually, he was just being whiny and clingy, and this allowed me to make dinner.